Verifying the deicing capacity of superhydrophobic anti-icing surfaces based on wind and thermal fields

Based on the high icing-delay performance and low ice adhesion strength, the anti-icing potential of superhydrophobic surfaces has been well investigated over the past years. The aim of this work was to verify the deicing capacity of superhydrophobic surfaces under the conditions of wind and thermal fields, expecting to promote its engineering applications. We took various wetting surfaces ranging from hydrophilic to superhydrophobic as research objects, and discussed the deicing properties of these sample surfaces based on the wind and thermal fields. The results indicated that under the condition of wind field, the micro-nanoscale hierarchical structured superhydrophobic surface exhibited a remarkable deicing property (no matter what the freezing temperature was), due to the time required for blowing away ice on the surface being least. However, the specific micro-nanoscale hierarchical structures on the superhydrophobic surface also induced a poorly melting ice property owing to the lower heat transfer efficiency caused by trapped air pockets. Furthermore, the superhydrophobic surface displayed a robust durability under the condition of 30 icing/deicing cycles. Therefore, we believe that the wind field deicing is an ideal choice as the assistant deicing approach considered in the practical applications of the anti-icing superhydrophobic surfaces. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.